More Whales Slaughtered in Whale Sanctuary
Sunday March 2, 2014 – Melbourne, Australia — Today, at approximately 10:05 AEDT, Sea Shepherd located the factory
vessel of the Japanese whaling fleet, the Nisshin Maru, at 74°23’ S, 178°55’ W inside the Ross Sea Dependency, with a dead, protected Minke Whale onboard, and blood running
from the side of the ship. Slabs of whale meat were also photographed on the deck, along with the severed head of a
recently butchered whale.
The factory vessel was located by The Steve Irwin’s helicopter, which has found the whaling fleet on four occasions this season. The Steve Irwin and The Bob Barker are now closing in on the factory vessel.
Captain of The Bob Barker, Peter Hammarstedt, said, “Each time we have located the Nisshin Maru, the Sea Shepherd Fleet has been attacked by the whalers in night time ambushes. With darkness just a few hours away,
as we close the distance to the slipway of the Nisshin Maru, we are well aware that we are soon likely to have harpoon ships crossing our bows towing steel cables, and the strong
possibility that our ships could become disabled in the treacherous and frigid Antarctic waters. After sustaining two
grueling assaults, we believe a third attack by the whaling fleet is imminent. We have thirty-eight Australians and
three New Zealanders on board the Sea Shepherd ships. We call on the governments of Australia and New Zealand to stand
up to the Japanese government and send a clear message that they will not tolerate another unprovoked attack on their
citizens upholding international law.”
It is the second time this whaling season that Sea Shepherd has documented the Japanese whaling fleet in the act of
poaching whales within the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. On January 5, Sea Shepherd released damning images and
footage of the Nisshin Maru with three dead, protected Minke Whales killed in the Sanctuary. The blood-stained decks of the factory ship were
smeared with the remains of a fourth whale, including a head and spinal column.
It is the second time in six days that Sea Shepherd has located the Japanese whaling fleet. The whalers have remained
outside their preferred self-allocated hunting grounds of the Ross Sea due to Sea Shepherd’s relentless patrolling and
monitoring of the region. Sea Shepherd believes that, at the first opportunity that the whalers have had to resume
operations, they have successfully interrupted whaling once again.
In July 2013, the governments of Australia and New Zealand challenged the legality of Japan’s so-called “scientific
research” whaling at the International Court of Justice. A decision on case is pending.
Captain of The Steve Irwin, Siddharth Chakravarty, said, “It is not enough for the politicians, whose obligation it is to keep these whales alive
and protected, to ignore their international responsibilities and the wishes of their constituents. I urge the
Australian Environment Minister Greg Hunt and the New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs, Murray McCully, to look at
this dead Minke Whale, brutally killed in an internationally recognised Whale Sanctuary that both Australia and New
Zealand claim a commitment to uphold, and ask themselves if they truly believe that they and their governments have done
everything within their power to stop this illegal slaughter.”
Sea Shepherd remains the only organisation in the Southern Ocean committed to upholding the sanctity of the Whale
Sanctuary, directly intervening against the illegal operations of the Japanese whaling fleet.
Ends